The season has come and gone for the Oklahoma City University Men’s basketball team. The Stars finished with a 10-18 record while tallying an 8-14 record within Sooner Athletic Conference play.
Coach Mark Berokoff’s squad finished just one game away of the last qualifying spot for a trip to the SAC postseason tournament. Yet the record for the OCU basketball team is not indicative of what this year’s team was about.
The Stars began their season with an exciting win during the Abe Lemons Classic over a Top 15 team in the Master’s College, that win was followed up with an excruciating heartbreaking loss at the buzzer on a three-quarter court long heave by Florida College. That loss seemed to have shifted the momentum for Berokoff’s team.
All in all, OCU played well against eight teams that are going to qualify for the NAIA national tournament, which is among the most games played against that level of competition in the entire country. The SAC alone will qualify five, possibly six teams, for the aforementioned tournament.
In terms of strength of schedule (SOS), the Stars remained in the Top 40 out of over 200 schools for the duration of the season. The Stars went on to upset three teams who were in the Top 25 or who were receiving votes to be ranked in the Top 25.
Youth was a monumental theme for this year’s roster. The Stars squad featured one lone senior with five Freshmen, this number of first-year players solidified OCU as one of the youngest teams in all levels of college basketball, not just in the NAIA.
This year’s team did not once ever quit or practice poorly. With the core of the team coming back for next year and with the roster’s youthfulness being battle-tested, the future, as well as the horizon, for the Stars is immensely bright.
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